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mejomonster · 3 days ago

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You know how wild it is Pei Su drives Luo Weizhao's car so much???

Like yeah, of course he does. In the novels they move in, fuck, kiss, date etc.

In the show he moves in because of course he does. Because Luo Weizhao tails him when he tries to move back out, and demands he come back and get rest. Because like book Luo Wenzhou, show Luo Weizhao wants Fei Du under his roof where he can check and make sure Pei Su isnt self harming in the villa basement anymore. Where he can check no one is crashing into Pei Su's car to kill him. Where he can keep Pei Su safe, in his home - in THEIR home. In the place that's always been Pei Su's second home, place of safety, ever since the show kicks off and reminds us - Luo Weizhao taking Pei Su there for his birthday, to eat cake and sing him happy birthday and give him the candy that always comforts him, where Pei Su's cat has been living safely and alive for years. Luo Weizhao moves Pei Su in because of course he does, its all their characters would Ever inevitably do. Pei Su tells his employee he's moved in, tells Xiao Hanyang of course he lives here with Luo Weizhao. Of course.

And Pei Su has the money, has MANY fucking cars, enough to just GIVE Du Jia one. He does not need for a car. He can always get another. But Luo Weizhao's car is SPECIAL. Its Luo Weizhao's, its an extension of the home they share, its got the kitty mirror decoration Luo Weizhao put up - likely because he became a fucking cat dad thanks to Pei Su dropping a kitten into his life. Their cat. The car is decorated because of Their Cat, Their Home. The car is grey, not black and not white, but greys and reds because its their SHARED space. Their home. Its where their intensely contrasting lives meet in the middle, where they meet on equal footing, where they build their home.

Of course Luo Weizhao lets Pei Su drive his car - Pei Su is family, you let family drive the car. Pei Su has saved Luo Weizhao's life before, by driving a car. Pei Su has been hit inside his own car, so Luo Weizhao probably feels more worried when Pei Su is driving his own cars. But mostly, the car is a sign they share the same home - they are home to each other - and a sign Pei Su is accepting it. If Pei Su borrows the car, Pei Su must plan to come home. Not to run off, not to go to the villa, not to isolate and leave Luo Weizhao.

I just love all the times Pei Su is driving Luo Weizhao's car in the show. The most distinct car in the show, grey, with red interior, with the kitty decoration.

#justice in the dark #jitd #meta #jitd lb #justice in the dark lb #i could also go into how since the car is an extension of their shared Home #how its symbolic that director Du rides in it with luo weizhao - luo weizhao sees him like family too!#or how Tao Ze and Xiao Hanyang are part of the dinner at Luo Weizhaos apartment - theyre seen as family too!#or Luo Weizhaos mon and dad stopping by the apartment - these are all people Luo Weizhao sees as family #with himself and Pei Su (and their kitty) as the core unit

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lunarriviera · 3 days ago

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->though i have a LOT of thoughts about how serious luo wenzhou has ever really been about tao ran whom he knows FULL WELL is completely straight but that's a different meta I see those tags <333 pretty please for some meta about that one day? (I love Tao Ran/Tao Ze sm. srsly how perfect is liu yihong in this role?!)

ngl nonny i have been SAVING THIS ONE UP [rubs hands together in evil glee] because you KNOW i'm out here wanting to talk about the bestest boy in the world. the only token straight guy allowed. the shy thoughtful bashful tousle-headed young man, of whom luo wenzhou once said so memorably: "for a while i thought he was gay like me. […] then i saw him get a girlfriend and found out that he wasn’t gay, he was just an idiot. he had absolutely no game."

(there will be spoilers below, for both justice in the dark and mo du!)

and yet, okay. AND YET. in addition to being emotionally foreclosed when it comes to holding a girl's hand, at the SAME TIME, this man is ALSO a highly trained and extremely gifted police investigator, who's not just dogged but actually kind of ruthless when he's on the hunt? he thinks on his feet and he thinks fast, and he's quick like silver when luo wenzhou orders his deputy to handle something.

(and they're still best friends! do you know how hard it is to be good friends with the same guy who tells you what to do all day? but tao ran has absolutely no ego, and he also knows that not only does lwz listen to every single thing he has to say, but that if he had to, he could also bark an order at lwz who'd move into action unhesitatingly. they're so easy together, the way people who have been friends through a lot of shit can become. shit of the "ugh my new freshman roommate" kind and also the "frontline criminal policeman who's probably seen 800-1000 psychopaths" kind) (to quote luo-dui.)

and yet HOW do both these things go together? adorable sweet helpless straight boy on the one hand, and on the other slightly unhinged detective who cancels on his crush to work a murder case?

you can't make it make sense, but priest can. because she's a genius. just sat at her laptop one day and thought: hey what are two random qualities i could shove into the same character that don't make any sense together at all? and she came up with tao ran. 1) clueless stammering awkward tiny baby who is 2) in his own way, just as driven and on-tilt about shit as luo wenzhou, just slightly better at being polite and acting normal. until he, you know. DRIVES HIS CAR DIRECTLY INTO ANOTHER MOVING CAR. ON PURPOSE.

(and goddamn, i believed liu yihong in that moment. and yes he has been absolutely EATING i am so proud of this child. i only have two sadnesses: 1) they've sidelined him from the last episodes and i will not spoil it for anyone but only say that in the novel he's more involved at the end of the investigation, and there's one scene in particular with fei du that i'm mopey about not seeing; and 2) i'm worried he won't get jobs from this, bc of the whole…cancelled-for-two-years/only-streams-in-japan/no-one-can-talk-about-it thing.)

he's a good team mom, too! they trust and look up to him, you can tell.

okay. BUT: what about tao ran as baffled straight love-object in zhoudu's bizarre little game of wishbone? or anyway the game that they seem to be playing, at the beginning of the story? how into him are either of them, really? i have different answers bc i think their feelings and existing relationships with tao ran are already different. (and i have to mostly defer to the novel here bc that's the only way we really get interiority; the drama doesn't have enough time for e.g. tao ran and luo wenzhou to sit in a patrol car and talk about dating.)

and! i know this is gonna be heretical! but! i must speak my truth!

in the case of luo wenzhou, first, he honestly doesn't ever show any particular inclination or intention to go after tao ran. i'm not sure we would even know he supposedly likes tao ran, other his throwing a tantrum when fei du gets flowers delivered to tao ran's desk (and a card with a poem…admittedly a better poem than the "nauseating" one he writes later for lwz in an extra). lwz never asks tao ran out, never makes a pass at him—and we've SEEN him with fei du later, we KNOW how fast luo wenzhou can move when he's really interested.

i can imagine maybe when they were first getting to know each other, maybe even in college/at the academy, luo wenzhou might have tried it on once, still young and curious and not entirely sure of himself. tao ran's pretty, and very smart, and good; luo wenzhou would have noticed all those things. and then he would have realized really, really quickly that it wasn't going to happen. maybe he even had some sad beers about it. but he's practical, and not given to pining (fei du is very much an exception). i think he probably decided: you know what, i like this guy, i want to keep him. and then they were friends.

we also know lwz is casual enough around tao ran to talk about who he's (not) dating; tao ran asks, listens, and expresses consternation that the guy lwz was (sort of?) seeing (...but a while ago?) left him for italy. and sure, luo wenzhou then demands that tao ran say which of them he'd rather marry, him or fei du, and forces him to choose—but he's doing that for one reason: to fuck with fei du. as soon as tao ran grudgingly allows that lwz might be the better choice (not least bc fei du hasn't turned 22 yet and can't legally marry), lwz laughs gloatingly and leaves him alone, bc he got his cellphone recording.

fei du, i think, is different. when he calls tao ran "ge" in that soft voice, casting his eyes down, you can tell it really means something to him. we already know that if he ever had any semblance of home life after his ma's death, it was only when he stayed with tao ran, and that must have been extremely rare, given fei chengyu's rule with an iron fist. maybe he could sneak in an hour after school, or run away on weekends somehow. lie about an overnight, if he felt that brave. but even as minimal as their contact might have been, it clearly meant everything to teenaged fei du. tao ran became his haven, his one safe place. a place he could take luo yiguo, when he had to, to save his life.

does that translate into romantic love? not necessarily—but fei du is in many ways that count even more emotionally foreclosed than tao ran. whatever painted skin he hides behind, he's painfully lonely, and tao ran doesn't reject fei du in any way; he never has. if you're in the drama world of apaths, that stuff is meaningless to tao ran; and if you're the novel world of…i guess just the usual venal petty violent one we all live in, tao ran has still never felt there was anything wrong about fei du, or anything lacking; he's just a human kid to him.

tao ran tells lwz as much, always trying to get them to stop bickering:

here they are, astonishing each other—lwz, startled tao ran has actually noticed that he and fei du are getting along better (like it's not 8000% easier to be around them now); and tao ran, startled that lwz is beginning to act like…he likes fei du? but that's not possible, right? (tao ran is one of the last people to get this memo, later, in a way that's excruciatingly hilarious. sorry for your tongue, tao-ge.)

so while i think fei du absolutely adores tao ran, and is devoted to him in a way, at this point, that he's not to any other living person, all this really points to is fei du's deep and deeply repressed desire to be devoted to someone. of course, if you've spent your entire life telling yourself you're a monster who can't form limbic, empathetic, emotional connections, then it's probably impossible to admit that you need and want to do exactly that. fei du doesn't think he can be trusted with a kitten; he certainly can't trust himself with another person. (something something something, dead mama something.)

so when i try to add up "how many working members of the SID are really in love with tao ran?" i'm gonna come up with: zero. as fun as we all think their tug-of-war is! and as entertaining as they are when trying to elbow each other out of the way! i don't think luo wenzhou even has a crush on tao ran anymore, if he ever did. and i think fei du has some advanced confused garbled case of desperate need for a big brother and/or unresolved gege kink that's just wandering around the world seeking a convenient and plausible target.

not that he knows that. anyway he still thinks he has to take down two separate crime syndicates and a bunch of corrupt old-line police directors and then, you know. lie down and die smiling on the floor somewhere. so it's easier and safer to worship at tao ran's shrine, write him poetry, send him flowers, try to sweet-talk him (to which tao ran is astoundingly immune, just because…he has no rizz). it's easier and it's safer to do all those things especially with tao ran, because fei du knows tao ran won't reciprocate. think about how frozen and panicked he gets in book 3 when lwz calls his bluff.

i know this got long and i'm sorry for being wordy but i've been thinking about all this for a really long time, and as i tell my undergrads, sorry: the good news is through no fault of my own i know a lot of things, the bad news is you're now trapped in a room with me for three hours a week while i bang on and on about my special interests. (i bring them a lot of fruit and cookies.)

just to go back to liu yihong for a final moment—earlier i mentioned interiority, and he's an actor who has a lot of that. you can watch his face when he doesn't have dialogue (always the best time to catch an actor not really showing up) and he's still completely tao ran: listening, thinking, reflecting, processing, deciding. it's a cliché but acting in many ways is about making choices, and if you think "well i'm just standing here in the background of a scene" and lose focus, even for an instant, you've lost the camera's regard. even if you're not "doing anything" there are still choices to be made, and if you've done the work of transmigrating into your character, you can still make choices, even when you're sitting motionless and expressionless.

it's odd to say this, but in the same way the camera loves some people's faces, it will also show you the things that it thinks are most interesting. (i'm being a bit mystical here about the collaboration between a DoP and an editor, but i'll allow it.) in scenes that aren't even lyh's, the camera is always meticulous about showing him to us, making sure we see him. that's not—that's not typical. not a lot of actors draw that kind of attention. i hope for good things for him.

(and zhang xincheng? he's actually the real thing, and needs to start making films instead of dramas; but that's a whole other meta.)

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